Is history lost in time? Reconsidering long term narratives in research and teaching

mercredi, 5. juin 16:30 jusqu'à 18:00 heuresSalle KOL-F-101

Is history lost in time? In research and teaching, historical temporality continues to be framed by one or the other idea of the “long-run.” However, in the last several decades, critical engagement with deconstruction and post-colonial critiques of Euro-centric narratives have posed a serious challenge to conventional formats – categories such as “Ancient, Medieval and Modern,” notions of successive civilizations, stages of development, or modernization. While some historians have welcomed the dynamism of history-writing liberated from totalizing concepts and teleological frames, others warn of the pitfalls of presentism and “short termism.” Still others remind us that climate change calls for a history of the Anthropocene and a new dialogue with deep history. Given these debates, how do we rethink the temporal categories that structure our research, writing, and teaching?

David Gugerli (ETH Zurich) has published extensively on the contemporary history of technology and culture; Antonella Romano (Centre Alexandre Koyré, Paris) is a renowned historian of early modern and modern science in Europe and Asia; Jeremy Davies (University of Leeds) is the author of a new book about the history of the Anthropocene; Myriam Spörri is a cultural historian and teaches at a high school (Kantonsschule Zürich Nord). The roundtable will be chaired by Simon Teuscher (University of Zurich), a historian of the Middle Ages.